The identity of the aircraft that was detected entering the country's airspace without clearance last Thursday, Sept. 2, remains unknown to the Philippine Air Force (PAF).

Lt. Col. Maynard Mariano, PAF spokesperson, revealed that the aircraft did not respond when two PAF FA-50 light combat jets were ordered to intercept it for visual identification (VID) moments upon its detection at 120 nautical miles northwest of Bolinao, Pangasinan.

" no radio response from the unknown aircraft," he said.

"We really cannot tell the intent of the aircraft why it was in our area of responsibility," he added.

The PAF spokesperson noted that the FA-50s could not fire towards the unknown aircraft since they weren't sure if it was hostile or not.

"Since the aircraft was not responsive to the radio calls and instructions given to it, there was no intention to fire at the unknown aircraft. The intercept was merely for identification," he stated.

On social media, speculations were abound as to the identity of the aircraft.

"While it was not identified from which country the aircraft is from, there is a huge chance that it is from China," wrote MaxDefense Philippines, a popular defense and military blogsite with over 150,000 followers.

It expressed worry that China, which has overlapping claims with the Philippines in the South China Sea, may be trying a new strategy where it deploys various air and sea assets to conduct multiple incursions in a particular country, like what it was allegedly doing with Japan and Taiwan.

"This will result in early wear and tear to air assets, reducing lifespan and putting our air assets out of action," it said.

However, Mariano refused to speculate about the real identity of the aircraft.

"We wouldn't want to speculate, it can be any aircraft type," he said.